Former Gaza Hostage Reveals Brutal Captivity Under Palestinian Terrorists

In an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital, former hostage Rom Braslavski detailed the harrowing physical and emotional abuse he endured during his 738-day captivity in Gaza following his abduction during the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre.

Braslavski, 19, was working as a security guard at the Supernova music festival when the attack occurred. For the first four months of his captivity, he concealed his military connection, posing as a 16-year-old shawarma vendor. His cover was eventually compromised when a Palestinian Islamic Jihad cyber expert questioned him with a laptop and headphones.

“They immediately reduced my food by three-quarters. I was on half a pita, a bit of cheese, a rotten tomato and a small bottle of water, when before I received two or three pitas and a liter of water,” Braslavski recounted.

The young Israeli then endured three months in complete isolation without daylight, a period so psychologically damaging that he began hitting his head against the wall in desperation.

His ordeal worsened when his captors forced him to march to a sprawling complex of approximately 20,000 tents near Nasser Hospital. During this journey, Braslavski collapsed from hunger and exhaustion, at which point his captors injected him with an unidentified substance before forcing him to continue.

“I was encircled by members of Islamic Jihad. Nobody told me where we were going. I cried, thinking they were either going to kill me or take me to a tunnel to torture me more aggressively,” he said. “I walked without energy, breathing air as if those were my last breaths, thinking it would be the last time I would see the light of day.”

The tent complex where Braslavski spent the next four months offered no privacy, with makeshift shelters fashioned from missile-destroyed vehicles. He described a chaotic environment with animals present and people relieving themselves in the open, all while struggling to breathe in the extreme heat.

Although the terrorist leader instructed guards not to abuse Braslavski, one young guard repeatedly violated these orders. “He did everything he could to break me,” Braslavski recalled. “Once, he brought me food, spat in it, and forced me to eat it. He humiliated me constantly.”

The guard subjected him to routine insults, threats against his family, and degrading acts until Braslavski finally retaliated in desperation, attacking the guard with what little strength he had left. This confrontation ended when another terrorist intervened and took the injured guard to a hospital.

The aftermath brought even more severe punishment. “The day that followed was the second darkest of my life after Oct. 7,” Braslavski said. “The chief terrorist decided to respond severely to what I did, and from there I entered a loop of constant abuse.”

His captors limited his sleep to no more than 90 minutes per day in short intervals. “They would hit me with whatever they had on hand. I underwent severe torture, bondage and sexual abuse,” he explained. After four months of this treatment, Braslavski was “clinically dead—rolling my eyes and passing out,” prompting his captors to stop the violence temporarily and provide medical treatment.

The situation deteriorated again during Operation Gideon’s Chariots in May 2025, when the senior terrorist overseeing Braslavski’s guards was injured and lost a family member. This triggered renewed torture and starvation that left Braslavski weighing just 49 kilograms (108 pounds).

“The senior terrorist, who weighed 90 kilos, would jump on my neck and try to break it. I was on the verge of death again,” he said. The abuse left visible marks on his body that can be seen in propaganda videos released during this period. “My bones were protruding. I could no longer go to the bathroom normally. Everything in my body stopped functioning.”

Braslavski credits the involvement of then-President-elect Donald Trump with beginning a turning point in his situation. As negotiations for a hostage deal progressed, his conditions gradually improved until his eventual release in October 2025.

Despite the severe trauma he experienced, Braslavski remains focused on recovery and rebuilding his life. “I have a dark past, but I must have a bright future,” he said. “God gave me back my life as a gift—not once, but twice. I need to do at least the minimum, which is to live, rehabilitate myself and put this all behind me.”

His testimony provides a rare firsthand account of the conditions faced by hostages in Gaza and highlights the ongoing challenges of securing the release of those still in captivity more than a year after the October 7 attacks.